This Memorial honors a Hungarian-American writer and winemaker, Agoston Haraszthy, near the House of Hungary in Balboa Park's international cottages.
The Memorial consists of a plaque set on a large rock. It has a large relief depiction of Haraszthy holding a cluster of grapes. A smaller relief at the bottom depicts men planting grape vines on the left and men and women harvesting grapes on the right.
It reads:
"FIRST SHERIFF OF SAN DIEGO
AGOSTON HARASZTHY
HUNGARY'S SON
CALIFORNIA'S PIONEER
1812-1869
SONOMA TOKAJ"
Tokaj refers to a town in Hungary.... but the poster of this Waymark could not find the connection with Agoston Haraszthy.
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"Agoston Haraszthy ... August 30, 1812, Pest, Hungary – July 6, 1869, Corinto, Nicaragua) was a Hungarian-American traveler, writer, town-builder, and pioneer winemaker in Wisconsin and California, often referred to as the "Father of California Viticulture," or the "Father of Modern Winemaking in California". One of the first men to plant vineyards in Wisconsin, he was the founder of the Buena Vista vineyards (now Buena Vista Carneros) in Sonoma, California, and an early writer on California wine and viticulture.
He was the first Hungarian to settle permanently in the United States and only the second to write a book about the country in his native language. He is remembered in Wisconsin as the founder of the oldest incorporated village in the state. He also operated the first commercial steamboat on the upper Mississippi River. In San Diego he is remembered as the first town marshal and the first county sheriff. In California he introduced more than three hundred varieties of European grapes...
Travels in North America
Haraszthy was a writer in his native Hungarian, in German (which he spoke from birth), and later in English. When he returned to Hungary in 1842, he made arrangements to write a Hungarian language book about the United States. He traveled widely through the United States to gather material for the book, which praised American life and enterprise. The two-volume book was published at Pest in 1844 under the title of Utazas Éjszakamerikában (Travels in North America). A second edition was published in 1850. This was the second book about the United States to be published in Hungarian...
San Diego
In San Diego, he formed a partnership with Juan Bandini, a prominent Spanish-Californian, and launched a host of business and agricultural projects. He planted fruit orchards, operated a livery stable and stagecoach line, opened a butcher shop, and organized a syndicate to subdivide a large section of the San Diego Bay shore into streets, parks, and building lots. The land lay between Old Town and New San Diego and was called Middle San Diego, or Middletown. It was informally known in San Diego as “Haraszthyville”. While in San Diego, Haraszthy imported grape vines by mail. Some came from the eastern United States, others from Europe. He planted a vineyard on a tract of land near the San Diego River. On April 1, 1850, in the first election held under the new American administration of California, Haraszthy was elected sheriff of San Diego County. He also served as city marshal. In his capacity as a private contractor, he built a jail for the city of San Diego, which was completed in 1851."